Posted on 09/03/2005 10:48:22 PM PDT by HAL9000
BELLE CHASSE -- The only building left standing in Empire is St. Ann Catholic Church.Looking north on La. 23, the houses are shattered, covering the area with debris and shredded wood.
The civic center is destroyed, the post office is reduced to cinder block rubble, and all that's left of the houses are partial floors, roofs or frames. Half of a mobile home trailer landed in the middle of a nearby bridge, and a burst line down the street continues to forcibly emit natural gas.
South and north of this little high ground at the Doullut Canal Bridge, a few hundred yards of dry land are surrounded by water left when Hurricane Katrina pushed water over the Mississippi River levee from the east. Flood waters were trapped between this levee and a western protection levee, leaving much of the parish below water.
By Friday, Plaquemines Parish crews were busy cutting breaks in the western levee to try to drain some of the water while they also tried to get pump stations running to move out more water. At the Sunrise pump station, located south of Empire, an 80-foot section of the retaining wall and levee were blown out by the force of the water during the storm. Until that can be repaired, tides continue to move water into and out of the area.
Farther south in Buras, flood waters have stayed, and the only access is by boat or airboat. Although the water went down some since the storm, some houses were pushed blocks away from where they started, and debris in the water destroyed many others.
Parish President Benny Rousselle said he flew over the area Tuesday and has been back out in boats during the week. He said he knew the damage would be bad, but the reality is worse.
"I didn't think total devastation," Rousselle said. "The devastation is unbelievable."
Prayers for ALL!
Wow. So the Mississippi River did floud over its leeve's on the southwest. Opposite New Orleans. This was a historic storm surge.
The Mississippi River delta area has no protection. The article said a section of levee collapsed.
The water that flooded towns in this Louisiana Parish were from the Gulf of Mexico -- the coastal marshes lie flat and near sea level.
A mere 20 foot storm surge raises havoc. However, Biloxi in the state of Mississippi had a 35 foot wave crash in. That means that much of Biloxi, even if 10 feet above sea level, had to deal with 25 foot water coming in.
The southwest area of the Mississippi River delta was protected some from the savage East side of the hurricane that did horrible damage to Mobile (AL), Gulfport (MS) and Biloxi (MS).
New Orleans did not have trouble with flooding until the Eastern side levees broke (Lake Pontchartrain -- not the Mississippi River levees). New Orleans had some problems with water ponding up to 2 feet or more, as I recall -- not much in the way of flooding until the Lake Pontchartrain levee(s) broke.
Plaquemines Parish is far enough South of New Orleans that I did not hear of any incidents regarding people shooting at helicopters. It was in the New Orleans metro area that this occurred.
People do evacuate this Southern most parish in Louisiana when a hurricane is threatening... Venice, Buras, and Pilottown are small towns in this parish that were probably almost 90% empty when this storm hit.
I've been contacting people down there. The base took some flooding but is pretty much back in business. It appears that a tornado danced down Belle Chasse highway north of the main gate, taking out the McDonalds, Popeye's Chicked and the roof of Belle Chasse Middle School.
Pretty much everything south of the base is under water.
The oil platform crews evacuate by helicopter to Buras and Port Sulphur. Many of them have yet to be located.
So we are not talking about the ugly events in downtown New Orleans.
I wonder when the media will show us some pictures of this devastation? They act like New Orleans is the only area in LA that was affected by the hurricane.
I imagine some of them had homes in the area (to live near where crew change occurs).
Of course, it may be easier now to do crew changes in Lafayette or New Iberia (places that have roads, stores, lodging, and even working telephones and cell phones). I don't know if you could drive South of Port Sulphur. Such is life... (C'est la vive!)
Gee, I wonder why?
The Wall Street Journal had a photos from a satellite that showed what was lef of the mouth of the Mississippi.
There are lots of marshes and swamp in that area -- mostly oil field workers, some farmers, and pilots for ships steaming up and down the Mississippi.
The logistics for the oil companies are a nightmare right now. About 8 major refineries down, a major offshore oil importing terminal with problems, and staging areas for workers basically washed away.
The oil and natural gas production is starting to come back online, but getting supplies out into the Gulf has got to be a problem -- I imagine supply boats are going to have to operate from places much farther away... But crews tend to eat well on oil platforms -- not much else to do after working 12 hours. Some folks probably sleep most of their 12 hours off and maybe a little fishing or some other things to do.
But my knowledge is tainted -- Reagan was president the last time I was on an oil platform...
On radar Port Sulphur was in the northwest part of the eye wall, Venice was in the southeast part of the eye wall.
Wow! And they think they have flooding in NO?
Chevron and Shell are freezing gasoline prices for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Prices in Southwest Louisiana is around $2.69 a gallon at some stations and Wal-Mart had gas at $2.89 a gallon.
The friend said the pipelines to the Southeast are running below capacity. Additionally, some of the refineries are under water.
The friend said there were more refineries on the East Coast at one time, but the environmental movement shut them down.
The same environmental movement had put a halt to building more refineries in California and also drilling offshore (spoils the view was the major reason).
I was curious why they build refineries so close to the coast, but you cannot move crude oil very far by pipeline (for some reason).
The refineries that are down have backup power generators, but they are apparently flooded -- the refineries and their backup power -- according to this person.
It would make sense to make it a priority to put temporary sandbags around the refineries and get them back online to alleviate gasoline supply shortages...
How many people in Plaquemines survived to do any of that?
I just love it how you make your little dig about race and then extend your prayers for all.
I believe I read that crude comes out of the ground warm/hot, and thus fluid, but that if it cools it is too thick to pump.
But that was the History Channel late at night, and I might not remember it right.
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